The future of the SwanCam, a webcam designed to allow the public to watch Manny and Faye’s eggs hatch into cygnets at the Manlius swan pond, is up in the air.

Michael Bean, the biologist who donated Manny and Faye to the village of Manlius, proposed installing the webcam in August. He wanted it to be in place by mid-March of this year, so people could see the entire hatching process, beginning with the eggs.

It’s now April, and although Bean has a three-year agreement with the village to set up the SwanCam, he’s not sure he’ll have the funds to do it this spring. And he doubts he’ll have the village’s blessing to go ahead as the camera and its funding has become a divisive issue in the village.

Trustees Nancy Pfeiffer and Janice Abdo-Rott confirmed he does have an agreement with the village, and said only that the topic will be discussed at the April 9 meeting.

Bean’s plan was to link the camera to a website that would also contain educational information about the swans and their breeding process. Bean said Cornell University’s Great Blue Heron cam was very successful.

Bean wants to use his not-for-profit foundation, The Swannery Foundation, to help raise the money necessary to implement and sustain the SwanCam for at least three years. He said it will cost about $15,000 for the first year and $5,000 for the second and third years.

Right now, he doesn't have anywhere near that amount.

Bean said the money raised through donations for his camera went to the village of Manlius, and Bean hasn’t been able to get permission to access that money. A $6,500 donation from Lois Ross, who owns New Dimensions, would have given Bean most of the funds he needs, but he hasn’t seen that money yet.

Ross said she originally thought her donation was for a security camera, but then she learned that’s already in place and the SwanCam is different. Now she said her donation can go to the village, but she'd like it to benefit the swans and the SwanCam.

Laurie Venditti, who helped organize a SwanJam last summer, said Bean had agreed to turn over $1,000 from it to the village, but has since refused to do so. Bean says that money, donated in connection with the SwanJam, was to go to his foundation for the benefit of the swans, so he can't just turn it over.

Bean said former Manlius Mayor Mark-Paul Serafin supported his efforts, but he's not getting that feeling now that a new administration is in place. He said his alliance with Serafin "doesn't help" his relations with village trustees.

"I've tried to do everything I can to help the village with the swans," he said. "If I can raise the money, I’d still like to do it. I would have had the money I needed a long time ago if it wasn’t for the opposition.”

Bean said the SwanCam Initiative’s goal is to help build awareness for all seven species of swans; Manny and Faye are mute swans.

"I thought doing this would be a lot of fun, but it's become very unpleasant,'' he said.